Welcome to Espadaland
by Trojan Virus
Summary: Orihime as an Espada. Now how does that sound? Living in Karakura Town. Meeting old friends. Beacuse that's what happens everyday, no? IchiRuki, UlquiHime, and other minor pairings. Warning, some mature and cracky content.


**Welcome to Espadaland**

**Hello to all readers out there! This is my second multi-chapter story (the first one pretty much sucked, now that I re-read it), and I hope I'll be able to complete this one without failing halfway through. The plot randomly came to me when I was half asleep, and so here I am writing it out, and my apologies for any plot-holes since this story is completely and utterly unplanned for. Happy reading~**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or the Espada. Wish I did, though.**

OoOoO

Tia Harribel was one very annoyed Espada. No, of course it didn't show on her face, but she did feel it all right. And she wasn't the only one. Tension was very high in Los Noches nowadays, especially after the betrayal of Aizen, their supposed 'God'. Fights erupted all over the place, and she had to personally track down the two hollows, wrench them apart, kill them if they weren't Espada, or beat the shit out of them if they were. That usually happened, since Grimmjow and Nnoitra had taken to trying to kill each other.

Nothing much had changed through the years, and the entirety of Hueco Mundo was growing restless. Why? Because they had to wait, that's why. And waiting did not suit Hollows well at all. Combined with the fact that they had already waited a century.

This, thankfully, only affected The Espada and Vasto Lordes. So, maybe the bit about 'the entirety of Hueco Mundo was growing restless' was an exaggeration, but to Harribel, it certainly felt that way. Even the patient, lazy Starrk had started to feel irritated, which was saying something, since he was known to sleep for over a year. Harribel rubbed her temples. She couldn't believe how long it had taken the Cuatro Espada to regenerate; for God's sake, he was only one rank below her!

Yes. They were waiting for Ulquiorra, or at least someone who could replace him.

The Espada had to be complete. Tia Harribel was not going to let Barragan, or whoever the hell was currently in charge leave Hueco Mundo without completing their ranks. It was just too risky, even if the Winter War was already over, to even take one step into the Human World without their full strength.

So they waited impatiently.

"NNOITRA YOU SON OF A-"

The Shark Queen furrowed her brow and scowled fiercely. Now she pissed. Really pissed. Marching off to the direction of where the shouts and clangs were coming from, she stopped abruptly.

That _reiatsu._

She had felt it before, definitely. It wasn't Ulquiorra's, or Grimmjow's, or Nnoitra's. It was more…_Foreign_, yet still oh so familiar.

Tia used her sonido, arriving at the scene of the battle. She expected them to still be fighting, or screaming, or at least threatening each other, yet it was deathly silent. Which was incredibly rare when you had Grimmjow and Nnoitra cooped up in the same place. Then it hit her. It was the reiatsu again; and damn, was it strong. Possibly as strong as Ulquiorra's.

She blinked as the blue-haired man and the spoon-head stared at the direction it was coming from. The three of them watched apprehensively as the person came closer, and closer, and closer.

A flash of orange.

Was that who she thought it was? Squinting her golden eyes, she tried to focus on the approaching figure.

It was.

It was Orihime Inoue, the girl they had once held captive.

Except maybe she wasn't just a girl anymore. Neither was she really a woman.

The shockingly orange hair was still there, but it was short and spiky. Her clips seemed to be long gone, and instead there were two mandible-like white bones, extending from her hair, framing her face, and ending at the edges of her mouth. A hole where her heart once was. Unwavering silver eyes. She glared at them, all traces of the once-friendly girl gone and dead.

"I will join the Espada."

It was not a question, or a self-invitation. It was merely a statement.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK WE'LL LET A LITTLE BITCH LIKE YOU JOIN-"

She was in front of Grimmjow before he could even blink, a hand squeezing his throat in a vice-like grip. Slowly, she let him down as he choked, and drew a sword. Not a sword, a zanpakuto. Orihime Inoue, when she was alive, had little spiritual power; she could barely attack with enough strength to even touch the weakest Espada, let along wield a _zanpakuto._

Tia Harribel understood, and by the looks of it, so had Nnoitra. Grimmjow was too stupid, probably.

Orihime Inoue was dead, and she chose the path of a Hollow. Or perhaps she was forced down the path of a Hollow.

"Strike and sting, _Alacran."_

She released her zanpakuto, the force knocking Grimmjow and Nnoitra off their feet, sending them flying through walls. The Shark Queen held her ground. And when the smoke cleared, Harribel understood why she had requested for a position in their ranks. A long white scorpion tail, arched; poised to attack, the tip gleaming in the moonlight, black sclera and green irises; clacking, smooth mandibles. Feet like claws, and several pairs of them; a perfect posture; green tear tracks; black armour resting upon her upper torso. A scorpion; reminiscent of Ulquiorra.

Then she returned to her original form.

And wordlessly, Tia Harribel led her into Los Noches.

They were leaving Hueco Mundo at last, for their ranks were complete. Harribel allowed a small smile to grace her lips (despite no one being able to see it) and sonidoed off to inform Barrgan or Starrk, or whoever was in charge.

Who would've thought that girl would one day take Ulquiorra's place as the Cuatro? Certainly not Harribel.

Orihime Inoue the Scorpion Warrior, Fourth Espada.

How fitting.

OoOoO

Kurosaki Ichigo sat on one of the many vast fields of a Rukongai district. He had died over thirty years ago, and had immediately sprung back into looking like an eighteen year old. Not that he had any complaints, but looking eighteen for over thirty years had its disadvantages. (Like not being able to walk into a over-21 bar when he was about a hundred years old). Now a fully-fledged Shinigami captain, it was nice to be able to go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted without being questioned, other than when his Lieutenant Rukia forced him to do paperwork.

All his friends were here, Tatsuki, Chad, Ishida, even Keigo and Mizuiro. Only one exception. They couldn't find Orihime Inoue, no matter how hard they searched for her. He was worried, not because he loved her more than a friend, but because she had always been the weakest among them all.

And she had been missing for over thirty years now.

Ichigo rubbed his temples, his brain too clogged up with information to think straight. Deciding a visit to the human world was necessary, he shunpo'd back to his office, called out Rukia, and headed to the Soutaichou for permission. It was a good time to visit his sister anyway, since after all, she was a lonely old woman.

A couple of minutes later, they arrived at Karakura town.

"It's good to be back, eh?" 

"Eh."

Yuzu and her husband took over the Kurosaki Clinic business, so that was where Ichigo headed to. "Ichi-nii!" She smiled at her older brother happily. Yuzu loved it when he came to visit them.

Ichigo still found it a little strange that he was her older brother, and yet she was and certainly looked sixty-five, while he appeared to be an eighteen-year old. Thankfully, her spouse never questioned.

"Rukia-chan!"

"Yo, Yuzu. How have you been coping?"

"Okay. It gets a little lonely nowadays, since Karin-chan has gone to Soul Society."

Karin had recently passed on, appearing as a Shinigami in the Gotei Thirteen just as Ichigo had done. Last time he checked, she was kicking Hollow ass in the Tenth Division. Ichigo smiled at Yuzu. "Your time will come, ya know. Don't sound so sad."

The brown (ish) haired woman smiled. "I'm not that sad. She comes to visit sometimes, you know."

After about two hours of idle chat and catching up, Ichigo and Rukia decided to leave the clinic, bidding Yuzu goodbye, to visit the places they were oh-so-familiar with previously, like their school.

"Boy, it's been so long since I've been here!"

"Tell me about it."

The raven-haired girl smiled, looking through windows and watching the gray-uniformed students work. She could still remember when she was doing that, except she never studied or took the exams. Glancing at her best friend and now captain, she could see the sad glint in his eyes that told her he was reminiscing the times spent in the school. Like when Captain Hitsugaya and his squad transferred for a short period of time. That was chaotic, she thought to herself, almost chuckling.

They turned, and made their way back.

OoOoO

Orihime cracked her knuckles in irritation as Grimmjow yelled loudly at the television, seemingly entranced by the rugby game that was playing. Standing up, she walked over to the couch where he was sitting and stared down over him intimidatingly. "You will shut up or I will personally cook dinner tonight."

The blue-haired man grumbled. "Sorry." He mumbled.

"Can't hear you."

"I said sorry, you stupid woman!"

Satisfied with the answer, she made her way back to the room she and Tia Harribel shared. It was surprising, even to herself, how much she had changed. She still remembered how she used to fuss over clothes, hair, makeup, and her dear, _darling _Ichigo Kurosaki, who she hadn't seen for decades.

Orihime also remembered when she died.

It was a strange feeling that she had encountered once before, when her brother (who had been Hollowfied) knocked her soul out of her body. But at that point of time, her soul chain was still intact; unlike when she died. The chain shattered like glass at the mercy of a bulldozer, and she had waited patiently for a while to see when Kurosaki-kun or Rukia-chan would come and perform _Konso_ to send her to Soul Society.

That obviously didn't happen.

Because all she remembered after that was falling asleep, and when she woke up, she was lying under a starless, cloudless, pitch black sky; the crescent moon like a leering smile, mocking her stupidity, mocking her faith.

She had been…_Abandoned._

Her surroundings had been all too familiar. It was Hueco Mundo, all right, and yet she didn't feel panic, or fright. It felt like…Coming home. It felt a little like when Ulquiorra reached his smoky hands out to her and realized what a heart was. It felt like a deep ache, a deep emptiness, a strange satisfaction.

She put her hands up to her chest, a little to the left, just where the heart should have been. And there was nothing.

It was a hole.

_I see._

_I see what Ulquiorra felt. I feel nothing._

_I am empty._

And that loneliness was terrible. She hated it, yet she hated company. When a Gilian class Menos, or even an Adjuchas class Menos came close to where she resided, she did not reach out, instead killing them with the tail that arched high above her head. Shiny and black, like liquid tar.

Slowly, she began to understand.

She had become a Hollow. Not a normal Hollow. That was all she knew. With no aim, no goal, nothing, Orihime roamed the white sands of Hueco Mundo boredly, as the plains stretched endlessly, and endlessly.

And endlessly.

And once she came across a lonely grove of white thorns. It was beautiful, so empty, so hollow, just like her. It was white, it was pure, just like what attracted her. She knelt by it, stroked it, and lay between its cold, hard branches.

It was peace, or as close to peace as she could ever come to.

And she lay there, a black scorpion with hair fanning out like flames.

And she lay there.

Then came a time when she rose again, ready to continue her journey. Somehow, her face felt more exposed, more delicate. She raised her hands, and felt it. Not the hardness of the black mask, but the softness of skin; she felt her hand touch her face. It had cracked, her mask, and lay speared and forgotten among the thorns. Orihime felt the weight of a weapon around her waist, and black bones coated her body; the tail was gone. Feeling even more, empty, she walked. Away from her mask, away from the thorns, into the black-white wilderness.

It was beautiful, yet terribly empty.

Orihime didn't know how long she walked for. She just walked. Not stopping, through the forest of Gilians, through the bunches of adjuchas, through the sand dunes; the quiet pad-pad of her feet resonating like cannons in the suffocating silence. And there it stood, proud and tall and broken. Los Noches.

She hadn't planned on making a stop here.

But since she was here, Orihime decided to drop by, maybe kill a few Espada for the sake of boredom. She walked in, feeling the reiatsus of three familiar people.

Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Harribel.

She kept on walking.

Perhaps she should join them. After all, what more was there to do here. She blinked, staring at the three, who in turn, stared back.

It felt like coming home, all right.

Orihime sat on her bed. She felt an unerring emptiness, even though the apartment was crowded with people. Was this what it was like to be the Fourth Espada, like Ulquiorra? It was…Different.

"Orihime. Do you want to go out for a while?"

Tia's voice was pointed and had a strange hint of embarrassment in it. There wasn't much to do except sleep, so she decided that it would be the most time consuming. Getting up, she felt a funny mix of reiatsu in the air and coughed discreetly, hoping that it wasn't what she thought it was.

"It is what you think it is. Let us take our leave, shall we?"

Using a careful sweetness that one woman uses to another, she dragged Grimmjow by the ear and walked out of the door.

"Why are you taking him along."

Orihime's voice was flat and monotonous, and she reminded herself of Ulquiorra. (Good job if you got that.)

"Nnoi-They told me they did not want interruptons."

"Ah, I see."

Technically, Harribel and Orihime were quite close. They got along well with each other, didn't fight and stayed in the same room. But Tia was _sacrifice_, and Orihime _emptiness, _so there was no way of becoming 'best of frens~~~~', as humans put it, (sometimes Orihime had to remind herself she was once a human), but they weren't on bad terms.

A familiar reiatsu. Two of them, actually.

Orihime breathed in sharply. She had completely forgotten that this was Karakura town, and though Shinigami definitely could not track the Espada any more, they could be easily recognized if they were not careful. Karakura town also happened to be Ichigo and all her old friend's homes.

Grimmjow tensed.

"Steady." Orihime muttered. "Do not draw attention."

He tensed even more, but made no suspicious movements.

And at that very same time, Orihime, Harribel and Grimmjow saw two people they thought they would b=never meet again.

Ichigo Kurosaki and Kuchiki Rukia.

OoOoO

**So, how is it? Good? Bad? Terrible? So horrifyingly horrific that you want to tear your hair out? I wanted to portray Orihime in a different light other than girly and unreliable (sorry to any Orihime fans), so here she is, terrifically OOC on purpose. In any case, please review. Constructive critisim is welcomed!**

**Trojan.**


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